The Golden Wastes

Cellar of the Red Keep

Between the Noble Quarters and the Temple District is an area now home to various tenements of poor laborers. However, in the Third Dynasty a crimson citadel stood here – the Red Keep of the Company of the Phoenix.

The entrance over the old dungeon of the Crimson Keep is now a hospice where the dying can rest. The hospice has an attached chapel, apothecary, crematorium, and ossuary. All dead are cremated, although the bones are interred. The hospice is maintained by Adepts who pay a low level cleric of Rudren – Abbas Bu – for funeral rites and clerical magic.

A secret door leads to a cellar where a brick-lined passage, encrusted in harmless mold, is covered by a fresco with runes and pictographs. It is an unknown language, a secret tongue of a race none has ever heard of. The room is essentially a chapel with gilded calligraphy of religious sayings.

A recurring theme in the prayers is the mention of a ceremony known as The Ravenous Awakening. This ritual involves the animation of huge numbers of undead who are then led like cattle into vast banquet halls, where they present themselves to the feasters for consumption. It is unknown if the cult members actually knew what they were describing. The cannibalistic imaginings are related to worship of Ghuls, and how the Ghuls created an ancient, nightmarish race of intelligent, humanoid worms to worship the Conqueror Worm, serve the Black Jinn, and hide among the races of Man. The passages suggest that the Black Jinn himself is trapped in some form of large stone monolith.

More obscure mentions include reference to a location called the Writhing Tabernacle, the place a bizarre race of wrom creatures hold as the most holy site of the Black Jinn. Mention is also made of their great ally, Arukurshu, the old Kingpriest of Eresh and the Apostle of the Worm.